RECENT NEWS ARTICLES

This page contains a selection of recent news articles and commentary about male victims of violence and abuse plus related issues. These articles are presented as a community service, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the One in Three Campaign.

Please send any relevant news articles to us by clicking here and we will post them on this page.

Entries by One in Three Campaign
(416)

Today the Australian Government is announcing a $100 million package of measures to provide a safety net for women and children at high risk of experiencing violence. The package will improve frontline support and services, leverage innovative technologies to keep women safe, and provide education resources to help change community attitudes to violence and abuse.

It's a great shame that our new prime minister has bought into gender politics when it comes to reducing the levels of violence in this country. This was an opportunity to work to reduce violence against everyone in the community, but instead it once again ignores male victims of violence. Men are twice as likely as women in Australia to be victims of homicide. Males make up at least one in three victims of family violence and abuse. Yet there is nothing at all in this package to keep them safe. Great news for women and their children, but a sad day for men and their children.

Have your say on what's happening in the news, current affairs and policy debates around the country.

Each fortnight, ABC Open and The Drum will nominate a subject for discussion, asking everyday Australians to share their personal story.

If you've lived it, we want to hear your story and your considered thoughts on the issue of the day. Our current topic is...

FAMILY VIOLENCE

There is a hidden epidemic of violence in Australian homes. One woman is hospitalised every three hours as a result of family violence. Children see and hear this violence. How do victims stay safe and seek justice? How should we hold perpetrators to account? Share your story and views in 300 – 700 words.

All contributions that meet the Dos and Don'ts will be published here on ABC Open. We may edit your contribution to make it suitable for publishing across different mediums and to give it context. The most compelling will be featured on The Drum, the ABC's popular platform for debate and discussion featuring some of Australia's best journalists, thinkers and opinion-makers. Contributors may also be invited to record their piece or become a live guest for ABC Radio.

The deadline for consideration for selection for The Drum is midday Monday, 28th September.

The 61-year-old - who has to go by a pseudonym for legal reasons - feels the services available unfairly cater for women.

James (pictured) claims he has been the victim of domestic violence after he split from his former partner last December. He claims she had hit him with a wine bottle months earlier, but he forgave her as "I loved her".

Since then, he says he has "copped a beating and endured financial and mental torture". But his cries for help to authorities didn't receive the same amount of attention they would have - if he was a woman, he said.

Domestic Violence Connect CEO Diane Mangan acknowledged there were fewer services for men, but this was because the numbers of men needing help were so much lower.

DV Connect's Women's line is open 24/7 while the men's line was only open from 9am to midnight.

Ms Mangan said the women's line received about 60,000 calls a year while "the men's line is 10% of that".

James said the system in place for men was "very limited", while the system for women was "astronomical".

Male support group One in Three argues one in every third case of domestic violence involves men, yet the government funding is unfairly skewed to women.

Researcher Greg Andresen said a bare minimum of "basic services" needed to be available to everyone, regardless of gender.

James said while the attacks on women were far greater, "I am still human and I have similar human rights. It's not a nice place to be (when you're being abused by your partner)".

He said he was kicked out of his former partner's home and had been unable to find shelter elsewhere. James has been seeing a psychologist - paid for by Centrelink - but felt like he was little more than a "CRN number".

"There is no housing for me. If I was a woman, something would be available."

VIOLENCE IN SPOTLIGHT

At least one in three victims of family violence is male

One male is a victim of domestic homicide every 10 days

Almost one in four young people are aware of their mum/stepmum hitting their dad/stepdad

Male and female victims of reported domestic assault receive very similar numbers and types of injuries

Males are almost three times less likely to report being a victim of domestic violence to the police

Post-separation, similar proportions of men and women report experiencing physical violence, including threats by their former spouse

Source: One in Three campaign

Men looking for help can contact the DV Connect Mensline on 1800 600 636 between 9am and midnight seven days a week.

With the help of production company Decibel as well as funding from the Cabra-Vale Diggers Club, Wetherill Park community worker Mathew Dillon released A Male’s Tale on July 14th. A Male's Tale is a documentary that explores why men, particularly men in Fairfield, don’t seek help for their health problems.

Mr Dillon said his work in the community led him to sense that there was something wrong when it came to men’s health. “I kept asking why there weren’t services for men. That led me to producing this documentary,” he said.

It took Mr Dillon two years to film and edit the 30-minute documentary, which contains interviews with almost 20 people including victims, health experts and community workers.“Without knowing what I was going to do or where I was going to go with it I just kept playing with it,” he said. One of the most significant moments in the film for him involves a male victim of domestic violence. “(He) has, against all the prejudice and hype, come forward to speak,” Mr Dillon said.

DVD copies of A Male's Tale are now available for free by contacting Mathew Dillon at .

The State of Victoria's submission to the Royal Commission into Family Violence contains the claim that "violence by women is often in self-defence," citing an American document that provides no such evidence to support this claim.

We have drafted an open letter to the Victorian Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, the Hon Fiona Richardson, asking her to look into the matter.

As our Fact Sheet indicates, self-defence is cited by women as the reason for their use of intimate partner violence (including severe violence such as homicide) in a small minority of cases (from 5 to 20 per cent).

In a study where self-defence was given as a reason for women’s use of intimate partner violence in a large number of cases (42%), it was cited as a reason for men’s intimate partner violence more often.

Rather than self-defence, reasons commonly given by women for their use of IPV include:

disbelief that their male victims would be injured or retaliate

they wished to engage their partner’s attention (particularly emotionally)

In order to carry out our aim of raising public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence, the One in Three Campaign encourages all media, whether mainstream media, websites, blogs or social media, to widely share our material with attribution. However, use of our material by any third party is not a sign of endorsement or affiliation between that party and One in Three. In order to carry out our aim of working with governments to provide better assistance to those affected by family violence, the One in Three Campaign works actively with all sides of the political spectrum but is unaffiliated with any political party or position.